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Partnering the 800 Pound Gorilla: Centrelink Working Locally to Create Opportunities for Participation
Author(s) -
Winkworth Gail
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8500.2005.00449.x
Subject(s) - service delivery framework , public relations , human services , agency (philosophy) , business , work (physics) , service (business) , government (linguistics) , marketing , sociology , economic growth , political science , economics , engineering , mechanical engineering , social science , linguistics , philosophy
This article explores the potential for government agencies to move into new kinds of relationships or ‘social partnerships’ with the community sector and business to address social problems. Through an analysis of documented examples of partnerships at the local level it examines how Centrelink, the Common wealth Service Delivery Agency, is using its considerable resources, human and physical, to work with others to improve accessibility of services, address service gaps and to actively create opportunities for participation. It proposes a tentative framework for understanding partnerships in terms of their value for ‘customers’ and the potential that such partnerships have to create opportunities that would not exist in a silo driven service delivery model. This article has relevance across all in human services who are interested in how the rhetoric of social partnerships translates into day to day service delivery.